COX ON SKIING: Now's time to March to the slopes

Forget all the cliches about March and the weather patterns, or March and the universal optimism of baseball's spring training, or even the Madness that is college basketball.

March is when you should be in the mountains skiing and riding. It's the best month of the year for the snow sport every year.

Back in the years when I spent time chasing football teams around through the fall and up through the end of January and the Super Bowl, February was my catch-up month on the slopes, and March was when I found my rhythm. It was when I scheduled trips, when we held major recreational races, and when our season was in full swing.

March remains the month of focus in California, and other states where skiing is a way of life.

For starters, you get the best of both worlds in terms of conditions. This is still a major snow month, meaning the surface you slide across is typically the consistency of winter snow, rather than the challenge of changeable spring snow. The weather is often spring-like. Blue-bird skies and bright sun, yet the temperatures are crisp enough to keep the snowpack intact.

Yet March in the mountains can be fickle.

Last year in a down year for snowfall, March was the biggest month with 79 inches of snow at Mammoth Mountain.

Two years ago, in a near-record year, March was the second biggest month with 177 inches, which is just shy of 15 feet for those who are math-challenged.

What's March to hold this year? A major storm last week added two feet of snow to the already deep base, but the sun was out by the weekend.

Midweek storms and weekend sun? Sounds like a marketing program from the public relations folks at Visit California. Not that they aren't working to promote skiing in California through a variety of cross-promotional endeavors. Remember a few years ago when we had an athletically inclined governor who had a ski mansion at Sun Valley? They filmed him skiing at Heavenly Valley for a heavy promotional campaign. Never mind that our actor-skier-governor rarely skied here. But if you were in Idaho, there was a good chance you'd see him on the slopes.

California's promotional scheme was in full swing last week when NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson and four pals were filming a "perfect day in California."

The five-time NASCAR champion began the day surfing at Huntington Beach, something he did regularly as a teenager.

He and two surfers and two skiers were then whisked to the Auto Club Speedway at Fontana where they made a few laps in promotion of the March 22-24 racing event. Next up was a private plane flight to Mammoth where they hit the slopes in the afternoon. Executive Clifford Mann took them on personal run off Cornice Bowl late in the day to cap the adventure.

If that's not a perfect day for the outdoor-loving race fan among us, what is? Of course not many of us are going to get to take a few laps around a high-speed raceway like the friends of the five-time NASCAR champion.

But many of us have lived our version of the California Dream by skiing and surfing on the same day.

For me, that parlay happened a few times when I lived on the Esplanade in Redondo Beach. If a weekend involved a trip to Snow Summit in Big Bear, the final day might wrap up with a dash into the ocean for a little body surfing. Especially if it was one of those March days when the sun was setting in spectacular fashion over the Pacific Ocean.

March is also a great time to take advantage of special deals. Every ski area, from Mammoth on the Eastern side of the Sierra, to the Tahoe resorts, to the local spots, is working to entice you to the slopes. Click on the webbiest of any resort and find a special deal.

Mountain High was first out of the gate with a program called the Anytime Pass starting last March 1, priced at $299, and offering skiing through the rest of this season and the entire 2013-14 season. For Mountain High sliders, that pass is pretty close to a perfect purchase.